Author Topic: dual CPU issues?  (Read 8937 times)

2021-08-13, 22:11:14
Reply #15

doillo

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@Doillo - unfortunately so far we were no able to reproduce this issue, even on a dual CPU machine. We are getting the expected performance.

Can you please:
- Make sure that you have all Windows Updates installed (you may need to restart your computer multiple times and check for new updates again, then repeat)
- Make sure that you have all the drivers up to date - especially the "system" drivers such as the chipset driver
- Update your BIOS to the newest available version

Wow, that sounds disapointed for me... I have everything updated. (drivers, windows updates (the optional ones), the bios, everything). My first thougts were to think that was my system fault, but as you could see, my coronabenchmarks were fine (cinebench and vray also was good). Moreover, other render engines like vray works fine as expected.
Moreover, as you saw, the problem were at textures at corona material. Without textures, everything was runing fine. I am building another dual system, and in a few weeks I will be able to do more test with new dual system.

I was thinking also about the ECC RAM memory (required for my mother board). Could be the problem there? I have 4x16 Gb sticks ECC Ram.

2021-09-02, 10:36:43
Reply #16

maru

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We did some more tests on a dual CPU machine (picked a pretty old CPU on purpose - 2x E5-2690 "v0") and we are still getting the expected performance in both your scene and the Corona Benchmark.
I am really not sure what else we could try. I am afraid only reproducing this issue on our end would give us some data.
Marcin Miodek | chaos-corona.com
3D Support Team Lead - Corona | contact us

2021-09-09, 23:13:00
Reply #17

doillo

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We did some more tests on a dual CPU machine (picked a pretty old CPU on purpose - 2x E5-2690 "v0") and we are still getting the expected performance in both your scene and the Corona Benchmark.
I am really not sure what else we could try. I am afraid only reproducing this issue on our end would give us some data.

Hello again, well I think I know where is the issue from. I search a lot and I find more ppl having this issue. Not only with corona, with vray and other softwares also. And not only with dual intel xeons, also with EPYC system, and TR 3990x.

Windows 10 "can not handle more than 64 threats". Well, it can, but when you have more than 64 threats, w10 splitt those into 2 "numa cores". And I think 3dsmax can not handdle those "numa cores"... Thats why, when I use 3dsmax maps, performance drops HUGE and an entire CPU "dissapears". It seems corona renderer is well implemented, and coronabitmap works fine (but not all of ur maps, cos triplanar also drops heavy my system) with those "2 numa cores" but 3dsmax not.

As I said, all of this is my summ and my thoughts, reading posts, making my owns test, etc.

It would be nice if you could try the test I show you in the video with a system with more than 64 threats.

2021-09-16, 13:59:00
Reply #18

maru

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@doillo - just one more request:

Could you please:
- download the attached archive
- open the two included scenes and render both of them on the problematic dual-cpu computer (do not change any settings)
- save the render output (there is a 1 minute time limit set)
- share your results with us

Thanks in advance!
Marcin Miodek | chaos-corona.com
3D Support Team Lead - Corona | contact us

2021-09-16, 15:47:21
Reply #19

alexyork

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We are also using some 128-thread machines here in the studio. Not particularly noticing the same issue as OP but thought I'd contribute my results too from my own workstation in case helpful.

Cheers.
Alex York
Partner
RECENT SPACES
recentspaces.com

2021-09-22, 15:55:38
Reply #20

maru

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@doillo ^could you please try that as well?
Thanks in advance!
Marcin Miodek | chaos-corona.com
3D Support Team Lead - Corona | contact us

2021-09-24, 10:12:49
Reply #21

doillo

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Hi,

Sorry if I am late answering but I am a bit bussy nowdays.

I will send you the test on monday

2021-09-24, 10:45:06
Reply #22

hrvojezg00

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I`m imterested in this as well as we are having alot of issues with it lately.

H

2021-10-12, 13:05:32
Reply #23

maru

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Hi,

Sorry if I am late answering but I am a bit bussy nowdays.

I will send you the test on monday

Hi Doillo, I shared a simple test scene here https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=33941.0;attach=154014
Could you please try follow the instructions from that post and share your results with me?
Thank you!
Marcin Miodek | chaos-corona.com
3D Support Team Lead - Corona | contact us

2021-10-12, 13:23:32
Reply #24

maru

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I`m imterested in this as well as we are having alot of issues with it lately.

H

I have just created a support ticket in our system on your behalf. Please check your email and it would be great if we could discuss this further.
Thank you in advance!
Marcin Miodek | chaos-corona.com
3D Support Team Lead - Corona | contact us

2022-03-01, 22:35:10
Reply #25

doillo

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Hello again,

Srr if I am reviving a "dead topic", but after 4 months I have more data to share.

4 months ago, I thought the problem was with my "exotic CPUs", because they are the OEM version (e5-2696v4). I thought that was the problem... So I decided to buy 2 original e5-2699v4 and change them... And surprise... I have the same problem :/

I found a post on the official Autodesk forum (they're old, but I'm pretty sure they haven't fixed it yet) that said 3dsmax can NOT properly handle +64 threats.
In addition, Windows 10 also has some problems with +64 threats... for example, I cannot "set affinity" in task manager and manage the number of threats for a certain application (Windows denies this action if it has more than 64 threats) And TR 3990x is known to have issues with its performance: https://www.anandtech.com/show/15483/amd-threadripper-3990x-review/3


And on top of this, corona is NOT working properly too. There are maps that SINK render performance when I use them (like triplanarTex) or native 3dsmax output or bitmap (and I think there will be more maps for sure).
I'm using corona 6/7 and I don't know if in corona 8 any of this is fixed or at least in a "fix schedule". I know you can not fix 3dsmax maps, but at least, try to fix your own maps like tryplanarTex, and check the others.

I'm still shocked that it took me like a whole year to know what was going on here. Finding almost 0 information on this. And I can not believe nobody is complaining of this.


There is any alternative? Can I render in other OS? do you have Linux render node soft?



2023-02-07, 08:23:56
Reply #26

simtub

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I've been having some issues getting Corona to run at a decent speed with our new DUAL EPYC Racks systems. Came across this thread and it has given me a bit more knowledge over the issues pertaining.

We thought it was a Windows 11 issue too and just upgraded to Windows 11 Pro Workstation Edition which handles up to 4 CPU's and 6TB Ram (We have Dual EPYC's at 64C 128T with Total Core count of 256 and 256GB Ram) But it seems Corona is still rendering slower than many of the benchmarks on out there on the Corona Benchmark Page and also CPU Utilization jumps up and down during rendering time.
 

Hello again,

Srr if I am reviving a "dead topic", but after 4 months I have more data to share.

4 months ago, I thought the problem was with my "exotic CPUs", because they are the OEM version (e5-2696v4). I thought that was the problem... So I decided to buy 2 original e5-2699v4 and change them... And surprise... I have the same problem :/

I found a post on the official Autodesk forum (they're old, but I'm pretty sure they haven't fixed it yet) that said 3dsmax can NOT properly handle +64 threats.
In addition, Windows 10 also has some problems with +64 threats... for example, I cannot "set affinity" in task manager and manage the number of threats for a certain application (Windows denies this action if it has more than 64 threats) And TR 3990x is known to have issues with its performance: https://www.anandtech.com/show/15483/amd-threadripper-3990x-review/3


And on top of this, corona is NOT working properly too. There are maps that SINK render performance when I use them (like triplanarTex) or native 3dsmax output or bitmap (and I think there will be more maps for sure).
I'm using corona 6/7 and I don't know if in corona 8 any of this is fixed or at least in a "fix schedule". I know you can not fix 3dsmax maps, but at least, try to fix your own maps like tryplanarTex, and check the others.

I'm still shocked that it took me like a whole year to know what was going on here. Finding almost 0 information on this. And I can not believe nobody is complaining of this.


There is any alternative? Can I render in other OS? do you have Linux render node soft?

2023-02-11, 05:47:24
Reply #27

simtub

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Some updates on our experience with a DUAL CPU system

On our Dual EPYC node, we realised that 4 x 64Gb Dimm configuration was the issue. Supposedly on a Single CPU, filling 4 Dimm slots would enable the system to run in Quad Channel but since we have 2 CPU's then 4 Dimms is just a Dual Channel Memory set up and we would need 8 Dimms for Quad Channel or 16 Dimms for 8-Channel Memory set ups. (Our school boy error when setting out the original specifications).

So it seems Corona is much more bandwidth dependent on the number of memory channels much more so than Vray and Cinebench. When we ran benchmarks for Vray and Cinebench in Dual Channel, the scores were very good and matched to other systems of similar spec. It was only Corona that had issues, Dual Channel Ram literally halved the performance on the Corona Benchmark giving us around 20seconds where as Quad Channel gave a respectable 11 seconds. I suspect 8-Channel may push the Corona benchmark to 8-9 seconds but we don't have enough Ram to test this.

Other things we considered to resolve this speed issue before switch the RAM were:

- Upgrading to Windows Pro 11 Workstation Edition (This version can run more CPU's and RAM than Windows 11 Pro but it didn't affect our case even with 128 Cores and 256 Threads)
- Turning off Virtualization (Didnt really do much)
- Turning off VBS, Core Isolation and Memory Integrity on Windows (Didn't really do much)
- Power Plan on High Performance (Both in Windows and BIOS - Not sure how this affects the system performance as yet)
- NUMA settings on BIOS (Not yet looked into it) 
- Windows Updates and latest BIOS

Hope this can help others out there configuring Dual Socket Systems.  I would be interested to know from the Corona Development team why there is such a dramatic performance difference between DUAL and QUAD/8 Channel RAM configs as Vray doesn't have this issue at all.

Cheers.

2023-04-24, 23:32:24
Reply #28

doillo

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Oh my god!

I just assume my RAM was working in quad channel (octo in 2 slots), using 4 sticks per cpu (8 in total). In fact, typical monitor software tells me my RAM is working in quad-channel, but I didn't try to populate all dimms (cos My boards have 16 slots!).

I will try this solution but I have to buy RAM to check it cos I don't have 16 RAM sticks...

2024-01-05, 10:16:03
Reply #29

andrew1988

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have you found the sollution in the end ?
I have some issue with you with my new build dual XEON 8480+